How to Attract the Birds 



flying silently about the nurseries and orchards, bus- 

 ily engaged in hunting the voracious rodents which 

 destroy alike the grain, produce, young trees, and 

 eggs of birds, the curses of the majority of farmers 

 and sportsmen go with them, and their total extinc- 

 tion would be welcomed. How often are the ser- 

 vices to man misunderstood through ignorance ! 

 The birds of prey, the majority of which labor day 

 and night to destroy the enemies of the husbandman, 

 are persecuted unceasingly, while that gigantic fraud 

 the house cat is petted and fed and given a 

 secure shelter from which it may emerge to spread 

 destruction among the feathered tribe. The differ- 

 ence between the two can be summed up in a few 

 words : Only three or four birds of prey hunt birds 

 when they can procure rodents for food, while a cat 

 seldom touches mice if she can procure birds or 

 young poultry. A cat has been known to kill 

 twenty young chickens in a day, which is more than 

 most raptorial birds destroy in a lifetime." 



Hawks and owls admirably supplement each 

 other's work. One group hunts while the other 

 sleeps. The owls usually remain in a chosen neigh- 

 borhood through the winter, while the hawks go 

 south. We are never left unprotected. In con- 

 sideration of the overwhelming amount of good 

 these unthanked friends do us, can we not afford to 

 be to their faults a little blind ? 



A VOLUNTEER HEALTH DEPARTMENT 



In the southern states, Cuba, and the adjacent 

 islands, the great dark vultures that go sailing high 



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